World News Quick Take

AGENCIES

■ ChinaHubbies not pleasing wives

Nearly one in four newly married women responding to a recent survey say they wish they had picked a different husband or stayed single, the China Daily reported yesterday. The survey of 1,073 couples was carried out by a dating Web site, marry5.com, the daily said. "Only 75.4 percent of wives said they would stick with their current husband if they could choose again," the paper said. It said figures for regretful husbands were "almost identical" to those of wives, but didn't give details. The average age of couples surveyed was 29.2 years for men and 27.1 years for women, the paper said.

■ Hong Kong

Plane fault investigated

An investigation was under way yesterday after a cargo plane was forced to make an emergency landing at Chek Lap Kok airport when both of its engines developed technical problems. The Shanghai-bound Dragonair flight and its four crew reported problems with both engines an hour after taking off from the airport on Wednesday and headed back. The Airbus A300B4 landed safely just after 2pm with emergency services at the airport on full alert, an airport official said. Both Dragonair and the Civil Aviation Department were conducting investigations into the incident.

■ China

Bus blast kills 11

An explosion on a bus has killed at least 11 and injured about 20 in a remote town in Tianzhu County, Guizhou Province, state TV and a local medical worker said. "Six people were killed on the spot and another five died in hospital," state TV said. It did not say what a possible cause might be or how many people were aboard the bus.

■ JapanChild abuse figures rise

Police have investigated a record 120 child abuse cases for the first half of the year, the National Police Agency (NPA) said yesterday. The number of abuse cases between January and June was up 14.3 percent, exceeding the previous record of 105 in the same period of last year, the NPA said. Twenty-eight of the child victims of abuse died, it said. Police found 86 cases of physical abuse, 23 involving sexual abuse, and 11 cases of parental neglect.

■ Australia

Sibling rivals settle dispute

A British lottery winner has settled out of court with the sister he sued over a luxury home bought with his prize money, lawyers said yesterday. Clyde Reginald Baxter, originally from Leicester who later moved to Australia's Gold Coast, had sued his sister Virginia over the home bought in her name for A$1.3 million (US$996,191) in 2000. Baxter, 35, claimed he bought the house, intending to renovate and sell it, but his sister claimed he gave it to her. Lawyers said the pair had settled out of court. The civil trial heard that the Surfers Paradise mansion in dispute was valued at A$5 million earlier this year. When Baxter confronted his sister in 2004, wanting her to sell it as they had planned and split the profits, she allegedly told him the house was hers as she was living there.

■ India

Earthquake rocks islands

A moderate 5.1-magnitude earthquake struck on Wednesday off the Andaman and Nicobar islands, seismologists said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. The quake struck on Wednesday evening with its epicenter 188km west-northwest of Misha in the Nicobars at a depth of 30km, the US Geological Survey said. The Andaman and Nicobar chain of islands in the Indian Ocean was hit hard by the December 2004 tsunami.